By jtmanley
This week was very nice. On Thursday and Friday, Argentina celebrated the Day of the Flag, a national holiday that commemorates the death of the flag's creator, Manuel Belgrano, an important figure in early Argentine history. UCA was closed on Thursday and Friday due to the holiday. With only a few no-school days left before the end of the semester, I decided to travel during the four-day weekend.
Although I thought about several different places, I ended up going to the city of San Isidro with some friends from Spain last Saturday. San Isidro is a small municipality located in Buenos Aires province, around an hour outside of Buenos Aires City. After taking the train from the Retiro station, we arrived at the Mitre terminal and took the Tren de la Costa to San Isidro. It was good to get outside of the city and change the transportation up. Many UCA students live in San Isidro and make a similar commute every day.
San Isidro's center is the, the host of the province's oldest artisan fair and the country's oldest floral clock. The impressive neo-gothic Cathedral of San Isidro, built in 1898, dominates the city skyline with its principal tower rising to 223 feet. After checking out these sites, our group walked parallel to the length of the Tren de la Costa route until we reached the Barrancas station, where we took some time to look at the local antique fair.
After finishing up at the antique show we went to the the summer home of the late Argentine writer Victoria Ocampo. The mansion and its gardens have been preserved by UNESCO, and the late afternoon sun really highlighted the peach-colored exterior and green shutters and furniture nicely. After leaving Villa Ocampo it was completely dark. We decided to take a coffee break before heading for the train station. After a lady told us that the last train had left less than 30 minutes before we arrived, we were consigned to take the 152 colectivo back to the City. After a full day of walking and sightseeing, we were just happy to relax!
